Autonomic Responsively to Sensory Stimulation in Drug Addicts

Skin conductance responses (SCRs), heart rate (HR). arterial blood pressure (BP), and respiration were recorded under rest and sensory stimulation (11 Hz strobe light, 100 dB while noise) in former drug addicts (DC) and in controls (CG) matched for sex and age in a repeated measures design, DC consisted of long-term users of barbiturates and narcotic analgesics and had been free of drugs for 11 period of 3 wks prior to the first session. The hypothesis was tested that autonomic functions art decreased in DG due to the drug effects. In various ANOVAs significant main effects for all factors were found. The results in DG compared to CG were: (1) diastolic hut not systolic BP was significantly lower: (2) SCR magnitudes were. Significantly smaller during rest periods; (3) SCR magnitudes and SCR recruitment latencies were significantly smaller in both sessions to visual and auditory stimuli; i4 the habituation rates of SCR magnitudes and SCR recruitment latencies were significantly greater at stimulus offset. The results of SCRs and diastolic BP indicated a decreased autonomic activity in the drug dependents compared to the controls.